


Hallowed Halloween

by A_Diamond



Series: Pornalot 2018 [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Canonical Character Death, Future Fic, Ghosts, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 01:47:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16483748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Diamond/pseuds/A_Diamond
Summary: Halloween is Merlin’s favorite holiday.





	Hallowed Halloween

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be a Pornalot bonus round fic but I missed transcribing it in time and just gave a summary instead. So here it is, on actual Halloween!

Halloween is Merlin’s favorite holiday. Not because of the costumes or candy or cultural encouragement to scare the crap out of everyone—though he does enjoy his reputation as creator of the creepiest haunted houses his city has ever seen. Maybe he cheats a little by using his magi to increase the realism and spooky ambiance, but it’s not hurting anyone and the kids get a kick out of trading Old Man Dragoon stories. Plus, enchanting his maze of rooms means he can leave trick-or-treaters to search through for treats and tricks on their own while he focuses on the real best part.

Because there’s a truth to the myths: the weakening of the veil, the reemergence of the spirits, the revelry of the dead.

Once a year, Merlin steps out of the old body that feels less like a disguise with each passing lifetime and waits on the ghostly shores of Avalon as the young man he once was. He doesn’t feel the cold or the passage of time; it takes a lot of time for him to feel it, now. Hours after dark falls, the ground starts to shimmer, then the air.

Then he’s there.

“Merlin,” he says, a year since the last time Merlin heard his voice. “What are you wearing? You look absurd.”

Merlin laughs, just about enough to keep the tears at bay. “It’s a King Arthur costume. This is what the world thinks you look like.”

Arthur’s face, as beautiful as ever, twists into a mask of horror. “They don’t!” he insists. “Do they? Merlin, it’s not funny! This is horrible. It makes me look like, like—”

“Like a complete and utter clotpole? Like a lumbering twit who wouldn’t be able to mount a horse with three pages helping you up? Like a blacksmith’s fever dream come to life, killed, and then reanimated with half your body replaced by a bear’s?”

“Enough! It’s an affront to all that is good and just and you will take it off immediately.” Arthur’s imperious tone doesn’t quite survive the grin that fights its way to his lips.

“Are you sure? I think it’s quite fetching, really. Have you seen the little plastic sword?”

“Merlin!” He’s laughing now; Merlin hasn’t heard that in a year, either, and it soothes a hurt inside him that he doesn’t often let himself feel.

With an insincerely put-upon sigh, Merlin acquiesces, “If you insist,” and starts with the ridiculously long and unwieldy cloak. The cheap plastic armor follows shortly after, more parts to it than any real plate mail Merlin’s seen in all his centuries of watching men go off to war and not return. Its pieces aren’t even metal and it’s still heavy enough to give him trouble walking around; whoever designed it probably couldn’t have made it more impractical if they tried.

Arthur watches him while he takes it off, and that’s even better than the outrage. The hunger in his eyes when he says, “No, leave the stupid fake crown on.” The emotion beneath it that’s a softer longing than hunger.

When he’s naked but for the stupid fake crown, standing in the gathering dew, the midnight chill and still not feeling it, he waits for Arthur to shed the only slightly incorporeal armor he died in. He too keeps his crown, shining golden in the moonlight as he crosses the last of the distance between them and finally, finally Merlin gets to touch him again. Just until dawn. Just until twilight starts to brighten the sky, still hours before sunrise, when Arthur will fade away again.

Once a year, every year until Arthur can return for good or Merlin can at last work out how to join him, they get this: a single night, less than, to be together. Halloween.


End file.
